u/Ok_Professor2873

Throwaway account. Trying to think this through and would love takes from people who've been in similar spots.

The setup

• I'm Indian, 31, based in Chennai.
• Won the H-1B lottery last cycle, before the Trump $100k fee kicked in.
• Got an approved I-797B from a US company that filed for me. Valid until September 2028.
• Never actually worked for that company. Long story, didn't take the role.
• For the last 6 months I've been at an Indian services company on 40 LPA, working on a US Fortune-500 client account.
• My current company has a US entity. They want to fly me onsite for about a month to help push on the client delivery. I have a B1/B2 valid till 2029 so they're planning to use that.

What's pulling me toward the US long term

I'm 31. Tech and AI is happening in the US in a way it just isn't anywhere else right now. I follow Tesla, SpaceX, the AI labs, all of it. Want to be closer to that gravity, not watching from Chennai.

The other piece: my wife is Swedish, born in Germany. From what I understand, if we go the green card route through me, her German birth gives us cross-chargeability and the EB-2/EB-3 backlog basically disappears (India is 15-20 years, Germany is current or close to it). That's a massive unlock if I'm reading it right.

My question

What's the smartest way to play the cap-exempt petition?

I know I'm sitting on something valuable. Cleared the lottery before the rules got brutal, before the $100k fee, before the wage-weighted selection coming in next cycle. Most Indians I know are getting destroyed by the new system. I have a working option that expires in September 2028 if I don't use it.

But:

• The petition is tied to a company I haven't worked for.
• My current company doesn't know I'm cap-exempt yet.
• If my current company's US entity files a new cap-exempt petition for me, I'd probably still owe the $100k fee since I'm in India and would need consular processing. So even with the lottery already won, the new fee bites.
• The B1 trip is coming up soon and feels like a natural moment to bring up the H-1B conversation. But I don't want to look like I've been hiding a US-relocation agenda when I genuinely haven't.

The options I'm seeing

1. Bring it up with my current company now, push for them to file a cap-exempt H-1B through their US entity. Eat the $100k fee if they're willing. Get to the US in a few months on a real visa.
2. Do the B1 trip first, prove value onsite, then bring up the H-1B conversation with leverage.
3. Wait it out. The $100k fee sunsets September 2026 unless extended. Lawsuits in flight. File later if the fee dies.
4. Use the next 18 months to find a US employer directly (Fortune-500, frontier AI lab, well-funded startup) who'd file cap-exempt for me. Better long-term trajectory, higher comp, cleaner green card sponsorship downstream.
5. Some combination.

What I'm actually asking

If you were 31, Indian, sitting on a cap-exempt I-797B that expires in 2028, married to an EU national who unlocks fast-track green card via cross-chargeability, working in Indian services on a US Fortune-500 client account, and wanted to be in the US for the long game - what would you do?

Hit me with the honest takes. I know there are people on here who've navigated this exact stuff.